Name: Orange Cake
Ingredients: two cups of sugar; one cup of milk; one cup of sugar; one tablespoonful of corn starch; one cup of water; a large tablespoonful of butter; two eggs; one lemon; two oranges

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Mix two cups of sugar with the yolks of two eggs, then add the whites beaten to a stiff froth ; next, add a large tablespoonful of butter, then one cup of milk and flour to make as stiff as cup cake ; flavor to taste ; bake in jelly pans. Filling — One lemon, two oranges ; grate the rinds, add the juice, one cup of sugar, one tablespoonful of corn starch, one cup of water ; beat until smooth ; cool before putting between cakes.
' CATSUPS AND SAUCES. 437

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

907Calories

29 gProtein

26 gFat

139 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together586 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,927 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, corn, butter, egg, lemon):

Vanillafits better
Coconutfits about as well
Figfits about as well
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, corn, butter, egg, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.